S.A. artist picked for artwork at the State Democratic...

1of 6San Antonio artist Cruz Ortiz, seen May 12, 2016 in his studio, has been selected to produce art for the Texas Democratic Convention being held in San Antonio June 16-18.Photo: Photos by William Luther / San Antonio Express-News

2of 6San Antonio artist Cruz Ortiz, shown here in his studio, has been selected to produce art for the Texas Democratic Convention in San Antonio June 16-18. A reader says the artist should expand his vision to include Republican candidates.Photo: William Luther /San Antonio Express-News

3of 6Ortiz hopes his artwork will bring additional enthusiasm to the Democratic convention June 16-18 at the Alamodome.Photo: William Luther /San Antonio Express-News

4of 6Old metal type used on antique printing presses by artist Cruz Ortiz to create some of his artwork is seen May 12, 2016 in his studio. He has been selected to produce artwork for the Texas Democratic Convention being held in San Antonio June 16-18.Photo: William Luther, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

5of 6Cruz Ortiz's studio, where he creates his gallery quality paintings, is seen May 12, 2016.Photo: William Luther, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

6of 6Used tubes of paints are seen May 12, 2016 in Cruz Ortiz's studio. Ortiz has been selected to produce artwork for the Texas Democratic Convention being held in San Antonio June 16-18.Photo: William Luther, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

At the end of a short street on San Antonio’s working-class South Side, where yards are peppered with “Texans for Hillary” signs and behind pieced-together metal siding, Cruz Ortiz is busy making political art with his tool of choice, a printing press.

Ortiz, a Houston-born, San Antonio-based artist, is channeling a career-long passion for politics into graphic prints and gear for the Texas Democratic Convention, which begins June 16 in San Antonio.

“This convention is the largest state convention in the U.S. That’s insane! We wanted to create a buzz and an enthusiastic environment for the folks who are showing up, the delegates and for the city of San Antonio,” said Ortiz.

“We’ve got some fun stuff in the works (for the convention) — maybe even some Chihuahua races. A Bernie Sanders Chihuahua racing a Hillary Clinton Chihuahua. Anything goes,” he continued.

Ortiz spent 15 years as a teacher, eight of them during George W. Bush’s tenure. That administration’s focus on standardized testing — in Ortiz’s view, a dangerously misguided one — deepened his views on the importance of staying politically active.

“I saw the ground zero effect of not voting,” he said.

Now he runs a print business, Snake Hawk Press, in addition to his displays at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other museums.

The Snake Hawk Press studio is a love letter to analog printing and other processes left in the dust by the arrival of the digital age.

Drawers are filled with the block versions of fonts more often seen on the drop-down list of a computer’s word processing program. Ortiz names them as he lifts individual letters from the drawer: “Cooper Black, Franklin Gothic, Century Gothic.”

Much of the equipment used in the printmaking is refurbished, originally from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s; one of the presses came from the print shop of Ruben Munguia, the West Side legend whose shop printed posters that helped power campaigns of big-name local Democrats including Henry B. Gonzalez and Henry Cisneros. The Munguia shop cranked out political material for 73 years before shuttering in 2007.

Ortiz was picked to produce convention art because of his San Antonio ties, said Manny Garcia, spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party.

“His art is youthful, political and engaging. His work has captured the spirit of San Antonio, and he has highlighted San Antonio Democratic legends, including our convention chair, Joaquin Castro,” Garcia said.

Texas Republicans also picked a local company to provide art at their state convention in Dallas earlier this month. Pixl Productions of Dallas provided graphic arts material and videos and designed the logo.

Ortiz’s work isn’t restricted to old-school, high art. He’s shown his work at the Louvre in Paris; he also makes art about taco trucks. It’s a combination that celebrates everyday San Antonio culture and communities. And he says that even abroad, in the far-flung places his work has been shown, people are receptive.

“A lot of the work transcends that typical Chicano-Mexican-American identity and people get it. It’s like mariachi music and Johnny Cash. Merle Haggard and Vicente Fernandez. It’s the same feelings,” he said.

At the same time, though, the specifics of identity are also central to his art and his politics — two things that are very intertwined.

“I’m a poor brown man,” he said, laughing. “I will always be political.”

Many things on the Zapata Street lot where Ortiz’s studio sits used to be something else. The studio was once a train station; the building where Ortiz lives with his family was a barn. And the artist has his eye turned toward an even bigger transformation.

“We’ve got a huge movement to turn Texas blue, but with that, we’re gonna need to get creative,” he said. “Let’s start with some Chihuahua races.”